In an announcement at the Game Developers Conference, Ubisoft reveals that the upcoming Watch Dogs 2 will support DirectX 12, and will be optimized for AMD GPUs.
Although Watch Dogs 2 is still a ways off, new details about the work going into the game is gradually being revealed. According to Ubisoft, Watch Dogs 2 will make use of DirectX 12 for its graphics.
In the announcement, an Ubisoft official explained that Watch Dogs 2 will feature support for the latest version of DirectX. Interstingly enough, Ubisoft chose to make the announcement during AMD’s press conference at GDC. AMD used the press conference to highlight upcoming games that will be making use of AMD’s next-gen technology, which indicates that gamers using AMD graphics cards will enjoy some special perks while playing Watch Dogs 2. However, neither AMD nor Ubisoft offered any specifics on what these extra features may be.
DirectX 12 was announced back in 2014 and is the most recent iteration of DirectX, so it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that Watch Dogs 2 will support it, considering that the game isn’t supposed to release until sometime before April of 2017. However, what does come as a surprise is that Ubisoft has allied with AMD, promising that the game will be optimized for AMD graphics cards. This is an unusual turn of events, as most recent games have touted how stunning they’ll look on Nvidia GPUs – even Ubisoft’s recent hit The Division offers perks for Nvidia GPUs.
DirectX 12 allows games to use massive amounts of polygons, huge textures, and has previously made for some truly stunning experiences. Square Enix released a demo nearly a year ago entitled The Witch which used DirectX 12, creating imagery that appeared truly real. Although Watch Dogs has always had a big emphasis on an open world and gameplay, the use of DirectX 12 should make the game look vastly superior to its predecessor, which reviewers found to be average-looking at best.
While Ubisoft isn’t exactly saying that NVIDIA cards will deliver a subpar Watch Dogs 2 experience, it does sound as though gamers with AMD cards may experience a few perks that Nvidia players won’t. In either case, any gamer with a modern graphics card that’s capable of handling DirectX 12 should expect the game to look visually stunning. With a little luck, creative director Jonathan Morin will follow through on his promises to make radical changes in Watch Dogs 2 so that the overall experience is as good as the visuals.
Watch Dogs 2 is expected to release before April 2017.
[Source:- Gamerant]
